Elevator Pitch Builder

A coach with two years of practice gives a different answer depending on who is asking - shorter version for strangers, longer version for potential referral partners, vague version for family. None of them produce follow-up questions or referral conversations. She doesn't notice the inconsistency because each version feels accurate in the moment.

Name the inconsistency before starting the worksheet. 'When you have multiple versions of what you do, none of them is doing the work a pitch should do - which is to let the right person recognize themselves immediately. This worksheet isn't asking you to pick the best version you already have. It's asking you to build one version from the ground up, starting with who specifically you help.' Begin with the Ideal Client section and get specific before touching the pitch draft boxes.

Watch whether the problem statement she writes describes a situation rather than a felt experience. 'Wants to advance her career' is a situation. 'Knows she's capable of more but doesn't know how to make the case for herself' is a felt experience the listener can recognize in themselves or someone they know. The pitch will generate referrals in proportion to how recognizable the problem description is.

After drafting both versions, read each one aloud and ask: 'After hearing that, what would you want to ask me next?' If the natural follow-up is a clarifying question rather than a specific inquiry, the pitch hasn't created enough traction yet. A working pitch ends with the listener saying 'I know someone who needs that' or 'that sounds like my situation.'

A coach attending a large coaching conference has three days of introductions ahead of her - breakfast tables, breakout rooms, hallway conversations. She knows she will be asked what she does dozens of times and wants a response that creates real conversations rather than polite acknowledgment. She has never built a pitch deliberately.

Frame the worksheet as preparation for a high-frequency real-world test. 'You're about to run this pitch twenty times in three days with a sophisticated audience who will immediately calibrate how clear your positioning is. That's a rare opportunity - and the feedback is instant. Complete the full worksheet now so you're testing a deliberate version, not improvising each time.' Focus the Ideal Client and Problem sections on the clients she most wants to attract from this specific audience.

Watch whether her pitch is written for peer coaches rather than for clients. At a coaching conference, the temptation is to signal competence to other coaches - use the right language, reference respected frameworks, indicate specialty credentials. That pitch doesn't generate client referrals. Ask: 'If you delivered this at a senior leadership team off-site rather than a coaching conference, would it land?' The test is whether it works outside the professional bubble.

After the conference, ask her which version of the pitch - the short or the full - generated more genuine follow-up, and what the most common follow-up question was. That pattern tells her where her pitch is creating interest and where it's leaving something unnamed. The post-conference debrief on actual field results is more useful than any in-session revision.

A coach with a strong referral network has noticed that the clients her referrers send often don't fit her best work - or they arrive with misconceptions about what coaching involves. When she asks referrers to describe what they told the prospective client, the description doesn't match her positioning. The problem isn't her referral relationships; it's that she has never given her referrers language they can use.

Reframe the worksheet as a referral activation tool rather than a personal pitch exercise. 'The goal here isn't a pitch you say - it's language your referrers can use when they're explaining you to someone you're not in the room with. Those are different documents.' Have her complete the worksheet for her own clarity, then use the outputs to draft a one-paragraph referral description she could give to her five most active referrers.

Watch whether the problem statement she writes is about what coaching does in general versus what her specific approach addresses. General: 'helps leaders develop professionally.' Specific to her practice: 'helps founders who are scaling past their early team figure out how to lead people they didn't hire and don't manage directly.' The more specific the problem, the easier it is for a referrer to recognize it in someone they know.

After completing the worksheet, ask her to send the 30-second version to her three most active referrers with a note: 'This is how I'm describing what I do now - does this match how you've been introducing me?' The responses will either confirm the worksheet produced language that works, or surface the specific gap between how she positions herself and how she's actually perceived. Either result is useful.